Yesterday, the United States House of Representatives voted and passed bill H.R. 6192. The bill would authorize the United States Mint to begin producing and selling a Morgan Dollar and Peace Dollar in 2021 to commemorative the 100th anniversary of the change from the Morgan to the Peace Dollar in our coinage history.
The full text of the bill can be found here and the bill has now gone to the Senate. There, the bill has been read and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. While the bill is still not guaranteed to pass and become law, this is a significant step in the fraught process of making these coins happen next year.
An effort to empower the US Mint to issue coins celebrating the Morgan and Peace Dollars, two of America’s most-loved series, has been re-introduced in Congress. The bill (H.R. 6192), which is called the 1921 Silver Dollar Coin Anniversary Act, would be an exciting development for US numismatics and deserves the widespread support of the coin collecting community.
Previous legislation to issue these as commemorative coins in 2021 stalled. Now, a new effort is underway that champions this important cause. If it becomes law, it would require that the Mint issue 2021 coins with the designs of the extremely popular Morgan and Peace Dollars.
In the legislation itself, it calls for a 2021 Morgan Dollar and 2021 Peace Dollar to be produced by the United States Mint with the same Obverse and Reverse as the original coins (though they likely will be enhanced due to modern die technology). The coins are to be sold as a Numismatic product by the Mint and they can be sold starting January 1, 2021 for a period of one year.
With this initial hurdle finally cleared, it is now a question of if the bill will make it out of committee and to the Senate for a vote. The Senate itself has an identical bill (S. 4326) which too is a positive sign. Collectors are encouraged to reach out to their Senators to encourage their vote for the bill once it is out of committee.